CELEBRATING 20 YEARS!
The Seldoms create multimedia performance charged by bold, exacting physicality. We believe dance can ignite thinking about critical social issues. Each of our projects is fueled by an appetite for research and incubated with partners from fields including history and science. We have created works on topics such as the 2008 recession, a trilogy surveying power and powerlessness in America, consumption and waste, and climate change. We've built a reputation for “well-crafted and researched works that don’t hold forth a political agenda, but look instead at how these towering issues reflect back on our own humanity” (New City, “Best Local Dance Company” 2012). With dance at the center, our vision extends to a total action and environment and includes collaboration with practitioners in fields including theater, installation, video, sound, and fashion.

Founded in 2001 and based in Chicago, The Seldoms has performed in twenty US cities and developed international connections, touring in Russia, Canada, Taiwan, and Scotland where we exchanged with Glasgow visual artists to create Toolbox, a sourcebook for makers. Our 2015 work, Power Goes, was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, awarded a prestigious National Dance Project Production Grant and a National Performance Network Creation Fund, and was presented in ten US venues, engaging a diverse community cast in each city. Stupormarket, which examined the 2008 economic crisis, was named “Best of 2011” by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and TimeOut Chicago. In 2015, The Seldoms were the first resident artist at the National Center for Choreography in Akron.

Locally the company has performed at numerous venues from tiny to big. We’ve designed site-specific productions in spaces including an architectural salvage warehouse, a truck garage, an outdoor pool, a Chicago Landmark park fieldhouse, and in 2012 we created the first traveling performance throughout the Harris Theater for Music and Dance with 24 dancers and musicians. We’ve partnered with local entities including Chicago Humanities Festival, Newberry Library, Experimental Station, and many more. Our recent "Toolbox @ Twenty" exhibit and performance series at the Hyde Park Art Center was named one of the "Best Chicago Art Exhibitions in 2022" by the Chicago Tribune.